Happy Go Lucky
— Surprisingly hard work for a Mike Leigh film, but worth it for Eddie Marsan's tense and troubled driving instructor.”
- Director: Mike Leigh
- United Kingdom, 2008
Mike Leigh is probably the last artist working today who still thinks suburban England has something to say. In his latest film, we’re presented with just under two hours’ worth of the usual struggling folk, weekends down the pub and indifferent weather. It’s all as sickeningly familiar as starter homes and roadworks.
From the midst of this banal landscape steps forth Poppy (Sally Hawkins), a bonny, blithe and gay (as in happy) primary schoolteacher who at first glance has been force-fed too much Red Bull. Nothing sticks to Poppy: people around her can stumble and suffer, but she’s kept her inner-child alive. Nowhere is this clearer than her driving lessons with Scott (Eddie Marsan), a man lost in the grave darkness of himself.
Hawkins brings a pleasant, consistently light touch to her character, but she’s the proverbial Milky Way: she won’t ruin your appetite before dinner. And those scenes with Scott are filling – you find yourself expectant for every driving lesson, to the absolute detriment of the film’s main thread. Marsan’s brooding, powerful presence has made for interesting cinéma everywhere he’s popped up, including The Illusionist, 21 Grams and Gangs Of New York.
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Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.
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April 23rd, 2008 at 15:25
Rarely does a film make me laugh out loud, but Happy Go Lucky certainly did (“Bear with me!” – “Where?”) — the humour is still slightly on the dark side even with the feel-good nature of film overall.
The thing, in my mind, about Mike Leigh films is that the characters are readily identifiable with people you may know — certainly I have a “Poppy” in my life and most have come across a “Scott”, precariously balancing on the edge whilst gently (or not!) letting society push him over it.
I’d give it 4 stars…and urge you to check out earlier Leigh stuff.
April 23rd, 2008 at 18:29
Granted, the script does have some great lines and I too laughed out loud a couple of times.
However, I still say that the driving lessons were riveting while the rest of the film felt rather slight in comparison. The other great moments – particularly the flamenco scenes – were bloody funny but said little about the direction of the whole.
What’s essential about most of Leigh’s work, in which circumstances threaten to derail the well-established status quo of the principal characters, was also present here but diluted almost to an irrelevance.
The only tensions were that a) Scott might do something or someone serious harm, or that b) Poppy might lose her endearing, artless take on life. Neither seemed likely and so the film’s heartfelt moments did not properly contrast with the darker ones.
That puts Happy Go Lucky on the same platform as Career Girls in which the tensions happened in the past, reducing the present – and the main thread of the film – to a mere branch line for nostalgia.
Now consider Secrets And Lies, where Cynthia’s past totally drives the present. All of the tragedy, the comedy and the farcical detail works on the strength of the backstory.
My opinion is that Leigh’s brilliant feeling for the human condition is best served by these kinds of situations in which the characters redeem themselves and restore their life balance. And lovely as it is, Poppy never really has to fight for her way of life.
April 24th, 2008 at 16:32
I totally agree that H-G-L has none of the usual Leigh ‘grit’ that we’re used to — we’ve dropped into the life of the main character at a time where she has no worries. In fact she does seem to have lived a slightly charmed life — or is it the class she comes from…is she unlikely to have suffered like characters from other Leigh films? Is that past, charmed life also driving her present (hence the lack of depth)?
I think the scene that sticks out in my mind (in addition to the driving instruction scenes) is the one where she is wandering through some deserted dockland (?) landscape and meets the Irish down-and-out. Her preconceptions (“Where are you sleeping tonight?” – “In a bed!!”) giving us an insight into her lack of understanding of life outside her own narrow existence…but maybe that’s why she is like she is…?
April 24th, 2008 at 17:07
Ah, you’ve got me there. I was out for a jimmy when that scene was on :-D
April 25th, 2008 at 16:13
That’s funny…the down-and-out had one in that scene as well! :-D